Giải phóng miền Nam

In 1975, I was due to sit my O'levels and the big political story of the time was the conflict in South East Asia.

Throughout the Spring of the year I remember the Americans being supremely confident of being able to prop up the regime in Viet Nam. Then the regime in South Vietnam seemed to collapse in double quick time, under the onslaught from the North Vietnamese Liberation Forces.

I remeber the quite incredible pictures of people scrabbling to get on to the last helicopters off the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon. Incredibly poignant and shocking at the same time.

Faith and politics

I had the unfortunate pleasure (!) of listening to Nick Griffin on Radio 4 this lunchtime.
He came out with the usual drivel, and bandied about the noxious mix of inaccuracies, falsehoods, and downright lies that characterise him and his so-called political party.

I wanted to challenge him as a soi-disant Christian who believes that"Christianity is the tapestry upon which our country's heritage was woven", where is his Christian charity?
After all, according to the Bible, has not God "made all nations 'of one blood'" (Acts 17:26)?


The man is a whey-faced poltroon, a chiselling charlatan, and a craven coward who uses other peoples' faith as a stick with which to beat them.

Judge gets it right

"The precepts of any one religion... cannot, by force of their religious origins, sound any louder in the general law than the precepts of any other. If they did, those out in the cold would be less than citizens and our constitution would be on the way to a theocracy, which is of necessity autocratic.
The law of a theocracy is dictated without option to the people, not made by their judges and governments. The individual conscience is free to accept such dictated law, but the state, if its people are to be free, has the burdensome duty of thinking for itself".

Lord Justice Laws

What is it with Tories and gays?

For a party that is supposedly into individual liberty, the Tories seem preternaturally obsessed with peoples' personal lives, especially their sex lives.News that the Tory candidate for Ayrshire North and Arran has got into trouble (again) for saying that he did not "accept that their [gays] behaviour is ‘normal’".
Not bad for a teacher!

This is not the first time this bloke has guffed, a couple of years ago he sang the praises of racist former Rhodesian PM Ian Smith, saying Smith "typified a British hero". He has also said that Enoch Powell's far-right warnings about immigration had "come true".

He was a member of the Young Conservatives in the 1980s, at a time when they used to sport "Hang Mandela" badges.

Even peachier, he is an advocate of nuclear power who believes that people promoting wind farms as a sustainable energy source are only in it for the money. So much for the Big Society.

The Tories... "plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose".

Betty Boothroyd

Back in 1992, Betty Boothroyd becames the first woman to be elected Speaker of the House of Commons in its 700-year history.

It was (and remains) quite an achievement for a local Yorkshire lass from Dewsbury.

I had the pleasure of hearing her address the Slovak Parliament in September 1996 when I was lecturing at Comenius University.

If I remember correctly, the gist of what she was saying was that government and opposition recognise each other's rights, the government's to govern and the opposition's to oppose.

The quote of her's that I remember was, "Governments must have their way. But, oppositions must have their say".

Happy anniversary Betty.

Guernica!

We are fighting for the essential unity of Spain. We are fighting for the integrity of Spanish soil. We are fighting for the independence of our country and for the right of the Spanish people to determine their own destiny.

In 1937 the Luftwaffe and the Italian Fascists bombed the Basque town of Guernica, causing widespread destruction and civilian deaths during the Spanish Civil War.

The raid killed more than a thousand civilians and was a horrific example of terror bombing and was to presage the targeting of civilians not only in that conflict but in the Second World War.

Ultimately, however, after four long decades, democracy won through.

Viva La Republica.

"I've really only got one story - mine"

Just heard of the death of Alan Sillitoe which saddened me a little.

Sillitoe wrote one of my favourite short storie namely The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and the character of Colin Smith, so beautifully played by Tom Courtenay in the film of the same name.

In a memorable quote Smith says, "Do you know what I'd do if I had the whip hand? I'd get all the coppers, governers, posh whores, army officers, and members of parliament and I'd stick them up against this wall and let them have it 'cause that's what they'd like to do to blokes like us".

After the expenses scandal of so many Tory and Labour MPs last year I'm sure that many folk felt the same.

Ironically Sillitoe couldn't stand the present New Labour government famously saying "I've voted Labour all my life but I couldn't bring myself to do so this time. They are incompetent and want too much control. I abstained instead".

Again, many people feel exactly the same given the betrayal of so many hopes and ideals over the past dozen years.

Keighley Churches Together

We had a terrific q&a session in Keighley last night.

So firstly, thanks to Churches Together for organising and hosting the event.
Secondly, thanks to all the more than a hundred people who turned up to hear the candidates. The questions were wide-ranging and thought-provoking covering topics such as abortion and euthanasia to the economy and Lib Dem tax policies.

With the announcement that two far-right parties have joined the fray, I am more than glad that they weren't there last night. They are vile and obnoxious and not at all welcome in Keighley or anywhere else.

Especially as yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Blair Peach in 1979.
Peach was a New Zealand-born teacher and a committed anti-racism activist, who died as a result of police action on an Anti-Nazi League march against the racist National Front.
More than thirty years on, no-one has been charged with his murder, although there were at least eleven eyewitnesses.

We want justice.
RIP Blair.

St George's Day

I love the 23rd of April, St George's Day, Shakespeare's Birthday, and World Book Day (to commemorate Cervantes'passing away).

A veritable triple whammy.

I know there's the whole Julian/Gregorian calendar thing going on, but I'll let it pass.

Anyway hope you can make it to the candidates' debate in Keighley tonight organised by the Churches Together. It promises to be fun.

Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Alienation not Immigration fuels the BNP

A fascinating, and I believe hugely important, new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) concludes that it is not immigration but alienation and an inability to overcome social challenges such as isolation and low skills which are the main drivers for BNP support.

This is something that I have been saying for a long time, backed by my experiences trudging the streets in the more deprived parts of West Yorkshire.

The finding contradicts the argument that immigration is to "blame" for pushing voters into the arms of the BNP.

If anything, the opposite is true, namely where folk have experience of living with migrants they are LESS likely to vote to the BNP.

It is also axiomatic of a wider political and social truth, the more we have an opportunity of getting to know each other, the more our lives overlap, whether at school, at work, or even at leisure the more we can understand and appreciate each other and realise that there is much more that unites us than divides us, and indeed often learning to celebrate that diversity.

The report can be downloaded from here http://www.ippr.org.uk/publicationsandreports/publication.asp?id=742

The RN recruiting illegally?

One of the more astonishing claims by Dave "Man of the People" Cameron on the TV debate on Thursday, was this gem:
I was in Plymouth recently, and a 40-year-old black man made the point to me. He said, "I came here when I was six, I've served in the Royal Navy for 30 years..."

Now bear with me on the maths, but if this bloke was 40 and had been in the Navy for 30 years, then he would have to have been 10 when he joined, MAX.

Far be it from me to imply that Dave made this encounter up, that would be verging on the libellous!

I can only conclude that this "black man" was a fantasist, and DC was just too polite to point it out, in which case why did he repeat it in front of 10 million people?

Note to Brons: Six million DID die

Nothing is going to put me off my game, I am in incredibly high spirits after last night's TV debate and Cleggy's bravura performance.

All afternoon people have been coming up to me saying things like "your man did well", "I was going to vote Cameron, but Clegg clinched it last night", "I was really impressed by his [Clegg's] performance, he seemed the most human".

Earlier today, however, another candidate of immigrant stock has joined the race to represent Keighley, one Andrew Brons MEP (German dontcha know, which you would have hoped would have stopped any neo-Nazi sympathies) has declared his hands.

I beat his loony leader five years ago, I intend to beat his sorry racist hide just as decisively this time round.

I'll be honest, I'll need ALL the help I can get, and if you can help (or know anyone who can) in any way that you can, please, please help.

I'll be even more honest. Without financial support from either Big Business, or the Unions, we have funding issues: we have to concentrate on the places where we have a real chance to win. Near here, that means Bradford East. But ALL help EVERYWHERE is more than welcome.

Perhaps the Leaders' Debates might change the electoral landscape, local Lib Dems are indeed receiving unprecedented levels of offers of support, so don't feel shy come and give us a hand.
Thank you in advance.

UKIP... too crude for words

Good to see UKIP are maintaining the highest level of political debate with their recent general election poster, "Sod the Lot".

How dreadfully vulgar!

Vaisakhi

Happy Vaisakhi to all my Sikh friends, I hope the day's celebrations are as colourful and joyous as ever.

to set the darkness echoing...

Happy Birthday Seamus Heaney

... once in a lifetime
The longed for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-changeon the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.

Yom HaShoah

Ghastly news from Hungary on such a sombre day commemorating the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

Jobbik, the far-right party has gained one-in-six votes in this week-end's Hungarian elections.

Jobbik is described as being "obsessively anti-Jewish", as well as inciting hatred against gays, Gypsies, Slovaks, Romanian, and Serbs.

Jobbik also runs its own paramilitary outfit, the Hungarian Guard, whose emblem is a variant on that used by the murderous Nazi-supporting Arrow Cross.

Nice bunch of people.

As if this wasn't bad enough, news that the retired bishop of Grosseto, Giacomo Babini, has said that he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the current criticism of the Catholic Church's record on tackling clerical sex abuse.

He is quoted as saying that, "They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers".

I'm waiting with bated breath for the Pope to denounce this fool.

Dear friends, known and unknown to me... Yuri Gagarin

Forty-nine years ago the Soviet Union successfully launched a manned spaceship-satellite into orbit around the Earth, and thus began one of the most exciting chapters in human history.

Major Yuri Gagarin became the first human to slip "the surly bonds of Earth" and pilot his ship, Vostok, into the vastness of outer space.

As a child my ambition was to become a cosmonaut and to see this indescribably beautiful blue planet of ours floating through the infinite emptiness of the universe.

Ours is a truly special planet, and the only one we have, which is why preserving it is so vital, and why I have so little patience with all the so-called climate change sceptics.

Lib Dem green and environmental policies have received three green lights by offering "the strongest set of policies on climate change, green taxation, and green living", as reported by the Green Alliance.

I married for love... not for £150

I don't know whether to laugh or be insulted by the latest "policy" by Tory Party Central Office.

£150 to get wed.
£150.
One hundred and fifty pounds.

Now depending on where you look, the average wedding cost here in the UK is somewhere between £15,000 and £25,000.

That's right, the average LOWER budget for a wedding is £15,000.
So £150 is 1% of the cost of the wedding.

When we got wed, we were very careful with costs, spending a fifth of that amount, but I'm sure we spent more than £150 on flowers alone.

Do the Tories think bribing folk with £150 to get wed will do the trick?

I admit they're talking about £150/year, but that's still not enough to buy most people their local daily paper.

The Tories are out of touch with life in Britain, they insult not just married couples, but all those who'd like to marry.

They insult love.

The Beatles Split - 40 years ago

"Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe".

I was nobbut a bairn when the greatest band in the world broke up forty years ago, but the above lyrics put me in mind of the now ex-Labour candidate in Moray.

Silly, silly, silly boy.
Of course, he was rude, offensive, and stupid, and deserved to be reprimanded, and dare I say removed from post.

But given that he had apparently posted some of these comments back in December, how come they only came to light now?

More importantly, who has been trawling the interweb to make even more political capital out of these potty-mouthed infantile remarks?

Gladstone and Irish Home Rule

In the early 1990s I taught politics at what was Liverpool Poly. I loved it, a great bunch of colleagues, fantastic students, and a senior management seemingly out of synch with both.

The Further and Higher Education Acts 1992 allowed the thirty-five polytechnics to become universities.

One of the issues for most institutions was what to do about a name. For a few it was relatively straightforward: Huddersfield Polytechnic, Portsmouth Polytechnic, and Wolverhampton Polytechnic all dropped the Poly suffix and became Universities.

In a few more, the insert Metroploitan was added, as in Leeds, London, and Manchester, clunky but doable.

Yet others decided to go with names of the great and good, Anglia Ruskin, De Montfort, and Oxford Brookes.
Now this practice is very common in North America (Yale, Harvard, McGill, etc.), Europe (Charles, Comenius, Palacký), and Asia (Chulalongkorn, Sun Yat-sen, Kim Il-sung University), but not so in Britain.
We had Heriot-Watt, Brunel, and Royal Holloway but all had been named after people long dead.

The problem of what to call Liverpool Poly exercised many people, The Liverpool Echo ran a competition and if I remember came up with Atlantic University, North West University, and Everton University as we already had a Liverpool University.

The Students' Union came up with Rigsby University in honour of the character from Rising Damp played by Leonard Rossiter who was born in Liverpool.

The management came up with (Sir) (John) Moores University. We were offended at the idea of naming our institution after a living person whose multi-million pound fortune had been built on gambling, as founder of Littlewoods Pools.

Yours truly, came up with Gladstone University in honour of the great Liberal and four-time Prime Minister who was born in Liverpool, and who introduced the first Irish Home Rule Bill on this day in 1886.

The management ignored my suggestion.

The Siege of Sarajevo

When I was a teenager, I used to love travelling in the old Yugoslavia. You had mountains, beaches, lakes, plains, and forests and great cities like Mostar.

The food, schnitzel and kebabs; sweet baklava and Turkish coffee; rakia and šljivovica.

The music of Ivo Pogorelić, Esma Redžepova, and Goran Bregović. The cinema of Dušan Makavejev, and Emir Kusturica. The literature of Ivo Andrić, and Danilo Kiš.

Most of all however, I loved its multi-ethnicity, multi-linguality, and multi-culturality. I loved the fact that an Albanian could marry a Motenegrin, live in Belgrade, go to see a play by a Croat playwright, support Partizan Belgrade, ski in Slovenia and summer in Dalmatia.

Unfortunately, the perverse and reactionary forces of nationalism bubbled over in the late 1980s and eventually led to the collapse of the old Yugoslavia.

The point is that when it did all begin to go wrong there were not enough of us standing up to say how dreadful it all was, and what a pack of lies was being told.

Instead we let commentators and politicians, talk nonsense about how there had been centuries-long enmities, how ethnic, linguistic, and religious hatreds was all that the peoples of the Balkans knew. We let people with their own personal and political agendas set the dismemberment policies, and what had been genuine economic and political grievances were expressed solely through the language of chauvinism, xenophobia, and revanchism.

The ultimate and inevitable conclusion of that logic of hatred was the four-year-long Siege of Sarajevo, which started 18 years ago today. It began with the murder of Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić on a bridge and ended with 10,000 killed or missing, including 1,500 children, and 56,000 wounded, including 15,000 children.

At the risk of offending you dear reader, we must be forever alert to the siren voices of division and dissemblance, fanaticism and falsehood, and remind ourselves and others, that there is much more that unites us than separates us, whether in Keighley, Yorkshire, Britain, Europe, or the World at large.

Il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace!

Dare, dare again, always dare!

The words spoken by Georges Danton in the National Assembly in 1792, as good a motto for a political party as any.

The character was brilliantly portrayed by Gérard Depardieu in Andrzej Wajda's eponymous film of the 1980s. Although his nemesis Robespierre was equally brilliantly fleshed out by Wojciech Pszoniak.
The film drew parallels between the Reign of Terror and the then situation in Poland, in which Lech Wałęsa and the Solidarity movement were struggling against the military government of General Jaruzelski.

Well worth borrowing the dvd out of the library.

Violence begets only violence

I was shocked and horrified to read that the leader of a political party had been threatened with violence and even death by some members of his own party.
That it was in this country was doubly worse, and then it transpired that this was a story about the BNP, and it all made sense.

After all a party based on hatred, violence, and intimidation, many of whose leaders have criminal convictions, and whose current leader came to power in a "palace coup" can expect little in the way of loyalty.

Worse than this, has been the BNP's threatening of my friend Dominic Carman the Lib Dem candidate for Barking, East London.
I wish Dominic all the very best, and remind him that I trounced Griffin decisively in the 2005 general election in Keighley.

Despite all their bluff and bluster and their hatred and vileness the overwhelming majority of the electorate see through their lies, and will do so again.

AWB... No not the Average White Band

For many people Eugène Terre'Blanche was the rather sinisterly comical but also hateful central figure in Nick Broomfield's twenty-year documentary The Leader, His Driver, and the Driver's Wife.

While I fervently hope that the trial of the two people arrested for his alleged murder brings out the truth of what happened, and that justice prevails, I can't help but recall with a shudder what a horrible organisation the AWB were.
All full of bile, venom, and vanity.

What the bigots of apartheid and separatists of the AWB showed was how wrong they actually were. And how the dignity and the strength of the black, coloured, and Indian majority shone through in the new Rainbow Nation.

There is still a long road to travel for South Africa, but with plenty of hard work and love... truth, justice, and reconciliation will triumph.

Cameron's Tories: Stripey Leopards or Spotted Tigers?

I do not take pleasure in pointing out how the Nu-Tories "talk the talk" but rarely if ever "walk the walk".

I genuinely want them to have become de-toxified. I want them to have shaken off the shameful shackles of Thatcherism, and the poisonous politics of class-hatred.

As a liberal I believe that there should be a multiplicity of political philosophies competing for our attention and indeed votes.

The Tories however are not there yet, and one might argue will never get there.

The comments by Chris Grayling that B&Bs should have the "right" to turn away gay couples, because of their "faith" is offensive, illegal, stupid, and just wrong.

If you want to give these "rights" to homophobes running B&Bs, why not extend them to other businesses like furniture stores because gays might cuddle up on their sofas.

This dim-witted comment should send out a very strong message to any gay person who may have been thinking of voting Tory... Don't!

Cameron's Tories are, "Soft And Dull-Eyed Fools" more like Paper Tigers than lions worthy of leading the country.

"I've Been to the Mountaintop"... King

Today is the anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shot in 1968 in Memphis Tennessee, he was just 39 years old.

King, and his espousal of non-violence, was one of most important influences in my formative political philosophy.

The previous evening he had given the famously prophetic speech comparing his struggle to lead the Civil Rights movement with that of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt:

"We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"

Are UKIP bonkers, or just thick?

This from the website of UKIP's Yorkshire MEP, Godfrey Bloom: "Foreign MEPs, i.e. the vast majority, like the EU Commissioners, over half of whom are communists..."

Note to ALL 13 UKIP MEPs, there are 736 Members of the European Parliament, of whom 72 represent the UK.

736-72 = 654

Therefore, the vast majority of MEPs (representing the other 26 countries of the EU) are by definition going to be "foreign".

As yet, there's no crime in being "foreign".

It puts me in mind of that wonderful Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch where a police constable is reproved for repeatedly arresting one Mr Vincent Kodogo for such offences as "wearing a loud tie in a built up area", "smelling of foreign food" and "possession of curly black hair and thick lips".

Happy Birthday Tony Benn

Today one of the most remarkable politicians of our age turns an incredible 85.

Despite being in different parties, and disagreeing with some of his policies, notably his assessment of the EEC (now EU), I have never doubted Tony Benn's sincerity and his willingness to engage in debate.

He is a principled and passionate person who has never been afraid to argue his cause. The progressive elements of British politics have been much enriched and strengthened by his contribution, dedication, and effort.

There is one quote that I believe best sums him up, and indeed should be at the forefront of any true democrat:If one meets a powerful person... ask them five questions: "What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?" If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.
(Speech to the House of Commons, 22 March 2001)

From one progressive to another, many happy returns Tony.

Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb

Three cheers for that wonderfully pink, sweetly delicious, fragrantly sublime produce grown up and down the 'West Yorkshire Triangle' of Leeds, Bradford, and Wakefield.

I refer of course to rhubarb.

Earlier tonight I made a lovely rhubarb and apple crumble, even if I do say so myself.

Even more wonderfully Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb is Britain's latest addition to the EU protected names list.

Three cheers for Yorkshire, and three cheers for Europe.

Simon Singh wins libel court battle

Good news from the High Court, where the science writer Simon Singh has won his court of appeal battle for the right to rely on the defence of fair comment in a libel action.

Dr Singh had been accused of libel by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) over an op-ed piece he wrote in the Guardian in April 2008.

All he suggested was that there was a lack of evidence for the claims SOME chiropractors make on treating some childhood conditions like colic and asthma.

This sort of bullying behaviour by big organisations and wealthy individuals shows them all too willing to use Britain's draconian libel laws to stifle free speech, and the decision, although welcome, does not go far enough.

After the poetry... passion and politics

I know those of you reading the last few postings have been thinking "Aye, Aye, Fekri's being all Fotherington-Thomas with his 'hullo clouds, hullo sky' offerings, but where's the politics?"

Well, gentle readers, I hesitate to jar your gentle nerves, but may I remind you that it is exactly twenty years ago since we had the great "Anti-Poll Tax" demo in London.

The tax was a fixed payment for all adults to the local council. It was unpopular, regressive, and ultimately punitive.

It had the beneficial effect of leading to the downfall of then PM, Mrs. Thatcher in the November, but because of the huge campaign of non-registration, it seriously affected the Census in 1991 (with some 1 million adults missing) and more importantly that same number becoming effectively disenfranchised in the 1992 General Election.

So despite the myth, it wasn't "The Sun what won it" in 1992. In fact, it was Kenneth Baker, William Waldegrave, Lord Rothschild, and the Dept. of the Environment with their 1986 Green Paper "Paying for Local Government" which set in train the chain of events that led to the ghastly Tories remaining in office a further five miserable years when they should have been kicked out.

So if you're thinking of voting for the Tories just for a change, "Woe, woe, and thrice woe!" as Senna the Soothsayer used to say in Up Pompeii!

Je n'aimais qu'un seul être et je le perds deux fois!

The line above is spoken by Roxane towards the end of the play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand and translates as "I loved but once, yet twice I lose my love!"

It's a beautiful play full of charm, derring-do, and panache but ultimately about unrequieted love which although seemingly downbeat is reaaly quite life-affirming.

Kniha smíchu a zapomnění

When I lectured at Palacký University in Olomouc in the 1990s, I co-taught a class in translation with my good friend Václav Řeřicha.

One of the authors we used to study was Milan Kundera, whose birthday it is today, mostly his short stories from Laughable Loves (Směšné lásky).
However, I had come to Kundera in my late-teens through his book the Joke and after that I devoured everything he had written.

I suppose my favourite is the Book of Laughter and Forgetting wherein he describes a famous/infamous Czechoslovak photograph from February 1948, where Vlado Clementis (Foreign Minister) stood next to Klement Gottwald (Prime Minister).
It was snowing and cold, and Gottwald was bareheaded, in an act of generosity, Clementis took off his fur hat and gave it to Gottwald to wear.

A few years later, Clementis was charged with treason and hanged.

The propaganda section erased him (along with Karel Hájek) from the photograph.Ever since, Gottwald has been alone on the balcony. Where Clementis stood, there is only the balcony... Nothing remains of Clementis but the fur hat on Gottwald's head.

This all too brief vignette underlines the motif of forgetting, and I suppose acts as a warning to us all, lest we forget.